For some reason, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams felt he needed to say something before Sunday afternoon’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Specifically, to Devin Duvernay.

It kind of seemed off at the moment. The two had sometimes exchanged encouraging words when they’d see each other before a game. But they didn’t have a ritual of sharing words of encouragement to each other beforehand to prepare for a game.

Yet for some for some reason Sunday, just before kickoff, Williams felt he needed to tell Duvernay something. Williams wanted to let Duvernay know that he’d make a big play for the team that day.

Sometimes life has a funny way of working out.

Duvernay changed the Bears fortunes when it seemed like their luck had run out Sunday. He made a pivotal play in the final minute that helped Chicago win 19-17 on a last-second field goal.

“Today just felt like the day and I told [Duvernay] before the game,” Williams said after the game inside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. “[It] ended up kind of working out that way.”

It came close to not working out at all. Chicago seemed to have a stranglehold on Sunday’s game heading into the fourth quarter when it led 16-3 heading into the fourth quarter. But like their Week 1 season-opener where the Bears blew a fourth-quarter lead against the Vikings, that grip quickly loosened.

Minnesota scored a touchdown to make it a one-score game with just over 12 minutes left in the game. Then after Chicago’s offense couldn’t put the game away, Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy seemed poised to complete another fourth-quarter comeback against his hometown when he threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Jordan Addison with 50 seconds left in the game.

Then Williams’ prophecy came true.

When Duvernay saw green space on the following kickoff, he didn’t overthink it. He sprinted from his left to his right and followed his blocks until he was pushed out of bounds at the Minnesota 40 yard line.

“Let the game come to you,” Duvernay said of the moment. “Because I feel like I’ve been in positions earlier in my career when I was trying to force things to happen. That doesn’t always work out. So just let the game come to you. Sometimes you’ll get played, sometimes you won’t. So just let it come to you and the rest will fall into place.”

The rest did fall into place. Chicago picked up two yards on two runs before running back D’Andre Swift ran it to the Vikings 31 to force fourth-and-1. Bears coach Ben Johnson decided to let the game clock run down to four seconds to set up the game-winning 48-yard field goal attempt.

Bears kicker Cairo Santos had prayed for the moment. Santos had missed from 45 yards earlier in the fourth quarter that put his team in a hole. But Santos felt confident that if he got an opportunity to attempt a field goal to win the game, he’d make it.

Santos just snuck the kick inside to the left to secure his team another improbable win.

“It was just guys always coming back and stepping in to make big plays for us,” Santos said. “The offense driving down and trusting me to be in that position again. I just had full confidence that I was gonna put that ball through and then find a way to bounce back from a previous miss.”

That confidence is something the Bears have had for most of this season. Chicago used it to beat both the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders after late-game heroics. It continued during their current three-game winning streak.

The winning started in Week 9 when Chicago came back in the final minute to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. It continued last week when the Bears did it again, this time against the New York Giants.

So when McCarthy threw that go-ahead touchdown in the final minute Sunday, the Bears didn’t waver and think about last season’s heart-breaking losses or even go back to Week 1. Instead, they had the confidence that someone would make a play that led to a win.

“I think we’ve proven a number of times this year that one of these phases are going to come through for us,” Johnson said. “Cincinnati game, offense was kind of carrying the banner that game. I thought defense did a really good job today. They’ve done that through the course of the season for the most part. Special teams comes through for us when we really need it today, so we cycled around on who’s stepping up to the plate and bringing us the win. I think that’s what good teams do.”

Despite the win, there was a sense of a missed opportunity. Johnson had wanted his team to develop a killer instinct and put teams away when they had the chance. Instead Sunday, Chicago let another team come back to force a dramatic win.

Developing that will be an important step. With a 7-3 record, Chicago is right in the middle of the playoff mix with seven games left in the season. According to Tankathon, the Bears have the toughest strength of schedule the rest of the way.

“Today just felt like the day and I told [Duvernay] before the game. [It] ended up kind of working out that way.”

—  Devin Duvernay, Chicago Bears returner

Bears players have the belief that someone will step up when the time comes no matter how dire the situation seems, even against better teams. They’d just rather just not let it come down to the unlikely.

“I don’t want to find out,” safety Kevin Byard said. “But at the end of day, I know as a team and who we are as team, we’re going to take you to battle and play all 60 minutes. Last year we were losing a lot of those games. This year is flipped. That’s the difference between being a good team and being a bad team is, those one or two plays here and there to be able to finish the game off.”